Get paid £13,700 to spend two months laid in bed

Published:13:02Thursday 06 April 2017

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It sounds like the dream job - lie in bed for two months and get paid £13,700 for doing it.

Scientists at the Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology in France are looking for fit and healthy men between the ages of 20 and 45 to take part in an experiment to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body - and people from Derbyshire are eligible to apply.

The 24 successful candidates will each be paid €16,000 (£13,700) to spend 60 days in bed, without once setting foot on the floor.

They will be on a slight incline of less than six degrees, with their heads slightly below their feet, and they will have to eat, wash, and go to the toilet in this position.

“The rule is to keep at least one shoulder in contact with the bed or its frame,” Dr Arnaud Beck, who is coordinating the experiment, said.

If that wasn’t enough to dampen your enthusiasm, the scientists warn that the volunteers’ bodies are likely to go through some serious changes during the experiment.

Their cardiovascular system is likely to weaken, their muscle mass, bone mass and immune defences will all decrease, they may become hunched, and their metabolism and sleep may also be affected. Half of the volunteers will be fed a cocktail of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory food supplements several times a day, while the other half will not take anything.

Once the 60 days are up, they will spend two weeks “recovering” and undergoing further tests to establish whether the supplements helped to mitigate the undesirable effects of weightlessness.

The scientists have already completed the first phase of the experiment, and are now recruiting for the second phase, which will take place between September and December 2017.